LOS ANGELES — According to the famous HOLLYWOOD sign's website — yes, even signs have websites in Hollywood — the 50-foot pop-culture icon is there to deliver a message:

This is a place where magic is possible, where dreams can come true.

Which is good news for the upstart basketball team from Colorado, because it will need a little magic now to make its dreams come true.

The Nuggets' improbable journey became your basic Hollywood script Wednesday night. After playing the favored Lakers even for three quarters and then succumbing in a dyspeptic fourth, the Nuggets are down three games to two in the best-of-seven series. All odds are against them.

Cue Phil Collins. The Western Conference finals are now the template for the modern sports movie.

Of course, in the movies, the underdog with no shot always wins in the end. Moviegoers don't put down their cash to see Goliath squash David, even if Jack Nicholson seems to have gone over to Nurse Ratched's side.

The Lakers have played in the NBA Finals 29 times. The Nuggets never have. If you were trying to create an arrogant favorite and a plucky underdog, you couldn't do much better.

How arrogant are the Lakers? Thanks for asking.

So arrogant that they feel free to change the lyrics of the national anthem.

Now, fans cheer different parts of the anthem for partisan reasons all over. In Baltimore, they cheer the "Oh" in "Oh, say" because of the Orioles.

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In Houston, they cheer the rockets' red glare because of the Rockets. But in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, singer and actor Tyrese Gibson changed "our flag was still there" to "our Lakers were still there."

I think we can all agree that's just not right. Up the road, on the sound stages of Hollywood, such arrogance is guaranteed its comeuppance, but not until the last 10 minutes of the movie.

And let's be honest: If you were writing a script in which the world was ganging up on the underdog, you would have the referees conspire against them, too. With Game 5 tied after three quarters, the Nuggets had attempted 23 free throws to the Lakers' 19. In the lopsided fourth, the Lakers got 16 more. The Nuggets got seven.

Denver coach George Karl lamented that the playoffs seem to require coaches to lobby the referees publicly, as Lakers coach Phil Jackson did after Game 4. He was fined $25,000, but it seemed to work for him in Game 5.

So Karl, after lamenting this necessity, proceeded to do the same.

"It was a very difficult whistle to play," he said. "No question about that."

So the Nuggets returned home early this morning one loss from the end of a dream. They must win two in a row — one in Denver on Friday and one back here in the shadow of that sign on Sunday — to advance to the NBA's championship series.

And you know what? It's no more implausible than being here in the first place. If you find a single published prediction from last summer that put the Nuggets in the Western Conference finals, give that prognosticator a drug test.

All teams like to say no one thought they could do whatever they did, but in the Nuggets' case, it's actually true. The front office was cutting costs last summer, not adding assets. Most experts didn't even have Denver in the playoffs.

Now, once again, most everyone believes they're done. The Lakers have two chances to win one game and advance to their 30th championship series. That is certainly the way to bet.

The Nuggets might as well be filming "Mission Impossible IV." Their only superhero is a Birdman.

Somebody asked Karl, in view of what happened Wednesday night, how confident he was that the Nuggets can win Game 6 at home Friday and force a decisive Game 7.

"Very confident," Karl said. "I like my team."

No one who has watched the series would say the Nuggets are overmatched.

"The competition we're facing with this Denver Nuggets team is unlike any we've ever seen," said the Lakers' Kobe Bryant.

"Our confidence is we're good," the Nuggets' Carmelo Anthony said. "This is exciting times. We're going home. We got a chance to win at home and see what happens in Game 7."

If you don't think so, rent a sports movie between now and then. And check out where it was made.

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

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